Florida, Alabama Carry Out Executions in Rare Same-Day Triple

Florida and Alabama carried out lethal injections Thursday evening, completing a rare day in which three U.S. states put inmates to death, CBS News and The Guardian reported.

Jesse Guardado, 64, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. EST at Florida State Prison after a three-drug injection, the Florida Department of Corrections said, according to WWSB MySuncoast and CBS News. Michael Shannon Taylor, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey confirmed. Indiana had executed Jeffrey Weisheit earlier Thursday morning.

Florida ties its yearly mark

Guardado’s death was Florida’s 19th execution of 2026, tying the state record set in 2025 under Gov. Ron DeSantis, CBS News and The Guardian said. Florida has carried out more than half of the 34 U.S. executions so far this year, according to those reports.

Guardado pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing and beating Jackie Malone, 75, inside her Walton County home in 2004, then stealing her jewelry box, $80 and other valuables to buy drugs. Malone had helped him find a job and housing. A federal appeals court in 2024 said he had received a “full and fair” hearing in the death-penalty phase, CBS News reported.

Alabama lethal injection after method switch

Taylor was executed for the 1991 beating deaths of Ivan Moore, 83, and Lucille Moore, 79, during a robbery at their Gadsden home. He was 19 at the time. Ivey declined clemency and called the killings “reprehensible,” saying the couple had opened their home to him.

Taylor had elected nitrogen gas years earlier, but Alabama used lethal injection after a judge ruled the state’s nitrogen method unconstitutional. His attorneys objected to the switch; courts denied stays. Asked for last words, Taylor replied “No sir,” CBS News said, and appeared to mouth “thank you” toward his lawyers.

Second triple execution day of 2026

Thursday was the second time this year three people were put to death on the same calendar day in the United States. Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma conducted executions on Aug. 13. Before 2026, the last such day was in 2010, The Guardian reported.

The executions came the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to commute all 548 death sentences in his state to life without parole, a contrast Ivey highlighted in her statement.

Sources: CBS News, The Guardian, WWSB MySuncoast